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A butler to the rich and famous says you should never open a bottle of wine gifted by a dinner guest that same night

Jul 8, 2023, 17:24 IST
Insider
Daniel Prattley is a professional butler to wealthy families.Daniel Prattley
  • Daniel Prattley is a butler specializing in luxury villa hospitality.
  • Prattley said a big faux pas is opening a bottle of wine gifted to you that same night.
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Luxury butler Daniel Prattley has shared his top dinner party tip — and it involves wine etiquette.

Prattley is based in Devon, UK, and works for wealthy families across the world specializing in luxury villa hospitality. Prattley told Insider that a major part of his role involves traveling to the south of France, where he says many of his clients rent or own holiday homes.

Prattley often shares insights about his job on TikTok, where he has more than 48,000 followers at the time of writing. One of his most popular videos, where Prattley shares how to set a table for a dinner party, has been viewed over 93,000 times.

Speaking to Insider about his dinner party tips, Prattley said the host should never open a bottle of wine that is gifted by a guest that same night because it's considered "bad manners," implying you didn't have enough wine to supply your guests in the first place.

"Never open wine that's bought for you," Prattley said emphatically, adding that the rule only applies to wine and not other beverages.

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"Make sure you don't just have enough wine, but non-alcoholic spirits for those who are driving, pregnant, or don't want to drink," he added.

Instead, Prattley suggested setting up a gift table in your home for wine, flowers, or anything else guests may bring so you keep it all in one place. He also recommended keeping track of who gifted you what.

"What a lot of my clients like to do is write on the label who bought it and the date and keep it for a different occasion," he said.

Prattley said he was inspired to become a butler by the late Joan Rivers

Prior to becoming a butler, Prattley worked as a theater manager in London's West End and in Edinburgh, Scotland, for 17 years, according to his website.

This job is where Prattley said he first met the late comedian Joan Rivers in the 1990s as she was touring in the UK.

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Joan Rivers onstage during Comedy Central's "Roast of Joan Rivers" at CBS Studios on July 26, 2009 in Studio City, California.Jason LaVeris/FilmMagic via Getty Images

Prattley told Insider he struck up a friendship with Rivers as her stage manager during her shows, and he ultimately was invited to assist Rivers in hosting after-parties.

"She had a huge A-list and royal following," Prattley said, although he wouldn't name any of the celebrities he met in Rivers' inner circle.

"These people would come and support her. She would entertain them afterward and she had asked me to do the parties," he told Insider. "One night, she said, 'You should do this full-time. You should be a butler.' And I just thought, you know, in a now or never moment, 'Let's do it.'"

Prattley said Rivers introduced him to his first clients, and then he made the transition to full-time butler in 2009.

He added that he remembers Rivers, who died in 2014 at the age of 81 due to complications with a procedure on her vocal cords, for her kindness and generosity.

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"I still have Champagne that she sent me in the '90s, you know, there was that much of it. She would always make sure everybody had a gift from her when she was doing a show," he said.

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